Wanting to tax land: absolutely not. Xenophobia? That we can work with.
Christopher Luxon made what he described as a principled political decision on Monday, ruling out the Opportunity Party over what he deemed to be fundamental philosophical differences on tax. “We wouldn’t be in business with people who want to increase tax,” the prime minister said.
Luxon later described the move, which seemed off-the-cuff and had to be confirmed later by his office, as obvious and not a surprise. You’ve got to draw a line in the sand somewhere, he said. “This is a party that wants extreme policy on taxes. We’re a party of low taxes. It’s not a surprise we don’t want to work with them.” Though Opportunity has argued its policy would actually result in a tax cut for around 70% of New Zealanders, Luxon has made his position clear: enacting a land tax and using it to fund a universal basic income is incompatible with National’s values.
Two days after the Opportunity rule-out, Luxon’s foreign minister and former deputy prime minister Winston Peters stood up in parliament to tell a Chinese-New Zealand Green MP to “go back to your own country”. “You only came here just five minutes ago. Go back to your own country, that’s where they lie like a flat fish,” he urged Lawrence Xu-Nan after taking exception to an interjection. Peters continued in this fashion for some time. “This is called democracy, unlike what you’re used to. So go back to where you come from, you loud mouth,” he added.
Though Xu-Nan has lived in this country since 1994, it would be hard to interpret Peters’ comments as anything other than overt xenophobia even if he’d lived here since last Tuesday. Luxon has described Peters’ diatribe as in keeping with of a long line of “inappropriate” and “attention-seeking” comments while presumably also looking forward to negotiating with him to form the next government. Given he’s been clear National is open to working with NZ First again, it’s safe to conclude that telling Chinese-born New Zealanders to go back to China is compatible or at least not a deal-breaker when it comes to National’s values.
Peters’ deputy Shane Jones has also dabbled in denigrating ethnic minorities, telling Xu-Nan he should “know his place” and describing potential extra immigration under the India free trade agreement as a “butter chicken tsunami”. This is, apparently, compatible with National’s values.
The comments are part of a trend from Jones, who told Luxon to “take off your kneepads” over what he deemed to be overly accommodating behaviour during Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to New Zealand. Jones, who in 2010 was caught charging porn to his ministerial credit card, insisted only the smuttiest modern mind could think he was making a reference to oral sex. Whatever he meant, alleged kneepad innuendo is compatible with National’s values.
NZ First has also blasted National for wrecking the economy with tax cuts (which NZ First voted for), undermining good government by agreeing to pass Act’s Regulatory Standards Bill (which NZ First voted for) and hurting workers by removing the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate (which NZ First voted for), none of which should give any cause for concern over the compatibility of NZ First and National.
Some comments do go beyond the pale though. When it was revealed Stuart Nash had called National’s Katie Nimon “lazy” for taking maternity leave, Luxon quickly ruled out having the NZ First candidate in his cabinet. Nash resigned soon after, adding NZ First to the list of parties he’s been left by. What he said was sexist and incompatible with National’s deeply held principles.
On the other hand, halting dozens of pay equity claims for low-wage-earning women to, in the words of Act leader David Seymour, “save the budget”, is compatible with National’s values.
Obviously National is more sensitive to the prospect of extra financial commitments for either the government or land-owning New Zealanders than it is to controversial commentary. But its current coalition partner hasn’t been shy of advocating for spending either. Peters has called for the government to buy back the BNZ, which economists think could cost $20 billion or more. He’s committed to spending $1bn on oil and gas exploration, building the Mill Road corridor that National just put on pause for being too expensive, and setting up a $100bn infrastructure fund.
Those are huge commitments, many of which rival anything Opportunity is proposing to do. Thankfully for NZ First’s coalition prospects though, it hasn’t proposed any feasible way of paying for its promises through extra taxes. That would be incompatible with National’s values.
